One of the things I find most useful is looking at the tour brochures- all of the tour brochures from all of the companies. I gather every one I can find - then "live" in the pictures - see which are the ones that I feel I can;t live without, the street that I HAVE to walk down or the boat I MUST ride on.

You use that as the overall shape of the trip - then add (or subtract) as necessary from there.

(I know this may sound silly - but it has never let us down. It helped us figure out we HAD to stay in Lucerne our first trip to Switzerland - and we love it so much we have stayed there every time since (alternating other towns for the rest of the trip).

Hello NYTraveler, travel brochures, what a great idea! Never thought of that. I can see how that would be a great help with deciding where to visit.

I haven't been south of Rome or to the Cinque Terre, but have traveled through Rome, Tuscany, San Marino, Venice and Lake Como.

Of all the places I have been in Italy, and many are great, I'd highly recommend Venice and specifically, the island of Burano, the place is unlike anywhere else on the planet...it is just amazing. Second on my list would be Tuscany (Florence and San Gimiagno). I went to the Bargello in Florence because I have a crush on Donatello's David. But it is hard to skip Rome when we have all learned so much about the Romans.

Our first trip to Europe was for 6 weeks and we planned more than we could get to (had to drop most of Germany and the Czech Republic) but were able to spend a relatively comfortable time in many parts of France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. When we went back two years later with a friend for only three weeks, the trip ww planned was from Paris to Venice (via Mt. Blanc) to Rome (via San Marino) to Arles and then Lyon and Beune (Burgundy) and back to Paris.

I have a lot of travel advice posted at www.eurfirst.com to help you get ready for your first trip to Europe.

eurfirst: How can we find out more (including photos) about the Isle of Burano? We did a search on Yahoo & hardly came up with anything, except that they're known for lace & colored buildings. Any hints?

Thanks!